utahlover

I am flying and renting cars a lot. Which credit card do you recommend that gets the most in travel benefits.

Patrick

This is not a simple one answer question. If you post that topic in the search function you can bring up some very long and very detailed recent threads with lots of great opinions and advice.
My belief is you pick the airline you want frequent flyer miles with and get their card. For me that's American (Citibank Aadvantage) but for you it might be different. I strongly believe you're better off funnelling all your miles and benefits towards one airline, as most cards that allow you to use any airline or transfer miles, don't offer enough other ways to earn the miles, or else you often lose miles in the transfer process.

GoTravel

Agree with Patrick to stick with one airline and religiously use that airline.

However, until you decide which program works best for you, American Express may be a good choice.

For me it depended upon which airline hub I wanted to avoid and which airlines flew into my hometown.

Keith

Which ever card you end up with, sign it up with idine. You can sign up for free and start getting 10 miles/dollar spent at participating restaurants on average.

Keith

Wildflower

We use Continental Visa to get 1 mile for each $ spend and because we travel often for us it is important that Chase bank accepts auto payment. Every month our balance is paid directly from our checking account. For us this is the most important reason to pay $45 annual fee. Find out what works for you.

Patrick

Keith -- great suggestion. I get tons of miles from the IDine program posted automatically to my AA account, whenever I even unknowingly use my Citibank card at an enrolled restaurant. The other night, a group of us went to a new little restaurant here in Naples. I charged five people on my bill (no separate checks) and the others paid me. I was amazed to get a notice yesterday that I had earned 2380 miles for dining at Fuel Cafe. Who even knew that it was on the program? While in New York for a month, I racked up something like 15,000 miles through the IDine program. The real winner was Fraunces Tavern which actually awarded 20 miles per dollar spent (including tax and tip) which amounted to over 3500 miles for our dinner!

Wildflower

Keith and Patrick, do you know whether idine works abroad? Where do you get information about it? I always dismiss this kind of information but it sounds appealing. Do you know if TRU in Chicago is on a list? We'll be there around Christmas. We seldom eat out when we at home as we travel so often and love to cook.

almesq

Thanks for the great tip re: idine and Fraunces. I eat there all the time for business as it's only a block away from my office. I'm going to sign up right away.

earlxx

Annual fee to join IDine is $49 and Tru does not participate

banares

If this is the IDine from American Airlines, according to its website, it's free to AAdvantage members
aa.idine.com lists the participating restaurants.

earl30

I read about that program here and just signed up a month or two ago. I think it was Patrick who had mentioned it before. It was free to join and I registered my American Express business card as well as both my wife's and my Citibank cards. Both will give me miles for American frequent flyer points. They sent me a book which lists all the restaurants and I've started making a point at eating of some of them just because of the miles. Two of our favorites are listed and I could kick myself for not registering sooner. We would have thousands of extra miles as much as we eat at one of them.

almesq

I just signed up and selected the AA FF program, and registered 2 credit cards (you can register up to 3). There is no cost. idine.com.

Curious

Wildflower,

Did I misread your post: You pay $45.00/year to enable the credit card company to take their monthly payment automatically/directly from your bank account?

If so, you have got to be kidding. There has to be another reason. I pay all of my bills either with my credit card, or automatically from my bank account for absolutely nothing. All done over the internet.

Curious

Patrick

I question that comment also. I know others have stated that most or all credit cards that give mileage have an annual fee, but mine has been waived by Citibank for years. I've never heard of any card that would charge you to let you do direct pay!

Earl, one thing to note. Most restaurants in the IDine program only let you earn credits once a month there. Some more often. Just something to think about. Our local Cheeburger, Cheeburger only allows once a month, so we have to always double check who paid last time so we each get credit each month. Actually I think we'd eat there even more if they gave unlimited credits -- but maybe it's a good thing for our health that they don't.

And if you really want to earn the points there, you need to check the website -- you can register yourself so it automatically comes up with your area. Some restaurants don't give miles on weekends, or other complications, for example. You can check before you go out to eat which restaurants in your area are offering miles that day.

Wildflower

I reread my statement and you are right, I wasn't clear. I am sorry about it.

We pay all of our bills either with our credit card or automatically from our bank account for absolutely nothing and that includes our credit cards payments which are paid off in full directly from our checking account every month.
Annual fee for our Chase credit card is $45.00. We get 1 mile for every $ we spend. It works for us.

Do you pay off your credit cards in full every month? How do you make your payments when you are traveling?

Patrick

I'm fortunate to have a friend who does my "bill paying" when I'm away. But you can easily to it on line. And once I had a couple of huge purchases on my business card and went over the limit. I called to have the limit raised, which they did, but meanwhile I gave them my bank account number on the phone and they did an automatic transfer that way so that my limit was open again. I talked with them about it and they said when you are traveling you can always call the customer service number for your credit card and they can do the bank transfer. Seemed kind of scary, but I've never heard of it being a problem.

Wildflower

You see Patrick, Chase does this for us automatically every month so we never have to worry about it when we travel. And we are away often. We still get every month our credit card statement which we check very closely

Patrick

Yea, I suppose I could set mine up for automatic payment too, but just never have. In fact my bank (B of A) is always sending me stuff about having all my bills automatically paid, so I guess they do it as well.

Keith

"Annual fee to join IDine is $49"

Idine only charges a fee if you are taking the cash discount program. Getting miles is free.

It is only good in the US, but in most larger communities there are many restaurants involved. There are about 150 in metro Kansas City, where I live.

Some restaurants only participate some days of the week, so it is good to check before you go. The amount offered is usually 10 miles per dollar, but ranges from 5-20 miles.

It also works if you use your card to buy gift certificates. Chritmas is coming

Idine.com for details.

Keith